Fake celibacy, part 3: Father What-a-waste?

By Bryan Cones |Print |Share

blog

I was away from the office when news of the racy photos of Father Alberto Cutie[1] (CU-ti-ay) broke; the Miami priest who runs (or used to run) a Catholic media outlet along with a parish in the Miami archdiocese, is now appearing on CBS' The Early Show. What's most surprising to me about the news coverage: the lack of outrage among the faithful. In fact, they're rallying to his side, while acknowledging that the archdiocese did the right thing in suspending him.

According to a poll of 400 people in the area[2], a huge majority, nearly 80 percent, thinks the church's celibacy rule is outdated and so don't seem too upset that Father Cutie has apparently had a romantic relationship for the past 10 years. Most, it seems, would be happy to have him go on ministering as a priest, despite the girlfriend. (Maybe they would prefer he go ahead and get married.)

The researcher makes the mistake of saying these Catholics are rejecting a "dogma" of the church, which, of course they are not. They're just saying that they'd rather have a popular priest who is married than no priest at all.